Occasionally, Don talks about his precious children in this column. Occasionally, I talk about my precious grandchildren in this column. And you seem to tolerate both pretty well. Today, though, I am not going to talk about my precious grandchildren although I could. I’m going to talk about Don’s precious children.
This past Saturday morning I was out on a walk (stroll) through our neighborhood. When I approached the Hanshews’ home, it looked as if some of them might be out in the backyard; so I wandered down there to say hello. The closer I got, the more I thought, “Hmm. It’s too quiet. There’s no one down there.” But, alas, I went around behind the little storage shed; and there were Thomas and Grace planting a garden, a rather large plot. I’d say about 10’ by 20’. Don was assisting them. They were very busy, but both children seemed delighted to see me. Since I had been with my precious grandchildren just the night before, I was especially missing them; so it was really good to be greeted so warmly by these precious children.
We chatted for a while; and when I realized I had kept them from work long enough, I told them bye and started away. Then five-year-old Thomas said something that really surprised me. In fact, I thought I had misunderstood him; so I asked him to repeat it. I was right. He had said with his trademark sweet smile: “Jim, I like your hairdo.”
Now, in case you haven’t noticed, I have spent a few weeks letting my hair grow back out on top to see if there is still anything up there. Surprisingly, there is something left, but not as much as when I did this a year ago. No one else had seemed to notice my “hairdo,” but Thomas did. I guess he is as smart as Don leads us to believe!
Then I left; went back home; got the car; and ran some errands. As I turned left from Hotel onto Broadway, I heard some shouting and realized it was a young man waving a Bible and talking, I suppose, about Jesus. Right across the street was a sign in front of a business that said, “Gold Sales Event Today.” I thought, “Hmm. What a contrast.” Then I hearkened back to Grace and Thomas digging in God’s good earth on a beautiful spring morning and Thomas’ encouraging words. While the sign spoke of gold, the preacher guy might have been talking about streets of gold; and Thomas was delivering gems of gold.
Three messages with differing messages delivered in three very different ways. The one that I’ll most likely remember the longest was the one from Thomas, not because he was bragging on my hair (no one has done that in at least 30 years) but because he was offering words of encouragement in a loving way. Probably without really realizing it, he was “doing good,” which is part two of the “three simple rules” that we are emphasizing here at FCUMC for a few weeks. “Do good” is the one we will be talking about this coming Sunday. And I am sure that in a few weeks Don will be doing good as he shares part of the produce of the garden with the rest of us!
I hope you will worship with us as we continue to give praise to God during this Easter season and as we seek to determine how we might continue to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.
- Jim
